The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-04-30
"LONG HAULS."
California Sugar and the Eastern
Refners.
Petition OF the American Refinery
for special Rates.

WASHINGTON, April 45th.-Judge Dillon
and ]. K. McCammon of this city, counsel
for the Pacific railroads, are engaged in the
preparation of brief setting forth the
reasons for a suspension of the long and
short haul provisions of the interstate
commerce law. So far as it applies to the
Pacific Coast, the brief will be submitted
to the commission at the earliest possible
moment, and it is hoped that it will result
at least in the temporary suspension of the
Objectionable feature of the law. The re-
quest for this action was received by tele-
graph to-day, signed by Fallon & Co., the
Bank of California, the Pacific Bank, the
Bank of British North America, the Anglo
Californian Bank and others. Strong pro-
tests were also received from the wool
growers, the sugar refiners, the fruit
growers and salmon Gamers, against the
enforcement of the long and short haul
provisions of the Act.
The commission to-day received by mail
the petition of the American Sugar Rein
ing Company of San Francisco. 1t sets
forth that the immediate effect of the fourth
section of the interstate commerce law,
unless modified, is to entirely destroy the
business of distributing the products of its
mandatory in the States of the Mississip-
pi Valley. The company declares it has
over 81, 900 900 invested in machinery and
material, and devoted to the manufacture
of refined sugar, and has large contracts
| for future business, involving many mill
ion dollars, based on the facilities and OPP
portunities offered by the overland roads.
Fourteen sugar refinery establishments
of New York and Philadelphia unite in a
letter to the Commissioners. They under
stand that the Pacific railroads are about
to make application to be relieved from the
operation of section A. Before their re-
quest is granted, the refiners ask an oppor-
tunity to be heard in opposition. at is
alleged" they say, "that the Pacific rail-
ways have been carrying sugar at $40 per
| ton from San Francisco to the Missouri
river points, while charging Salt Lake City
about $25 per ton upon the shorter dis
| lance. The result has been that Eastern
sugar refneries have been entirely ex-
cluded from markets which geographically
belong to them upon all grades of sugar
made by the San Francisco refiners."
! A long communication has been re-
ceived from the executive committee of the
Chicago Freight Bureau, an association
composed OF merchants, manufacturers
and the Board of Trade of Chicago, pro-
testing against the suspension of the long
and short haul feature, especially as affect
ing the territory north of the Ohio and
east of the Mississippi river, excepting
Pacific Coast traffic, and that conditionally.
The law without such suspension is be-
lieved by the Association to be not only
the best for the country at large, but for
the future successful operation of the law
in the territory named. The temporary
suspension provision, with regard to the
South was, in the judgment of the associa-
ton, the only practical solution of the
difficulty presented, but 1t views it with
alarm. The effect that the decision must
have upon the carriers in this section of
the country is in conveying perhaps a tacit
although unwarranted belief that similar
relief will be granted in other sections of
the country where uncontrolled water
competition can be cited as the occasion
for such relief
The communication continues: Suppos-
ing, for instance, the roads running from
Chicago to Buffalo were to ask for relief on
the traffic between those points on account
of the lake competition, carriers would
cite you to the fact that the lake affords
rival highway; that the government regis
ter of arrivals and departures of vessels
from Chicago exceeded that of any other
port in the United States that the rate for
water transportation between the points
named was at a minimum, as compared
with any other interior water navigation,
and supposing, for illustration. your hon.
orable Board should grant the carriers re-
quest and suspend the long and short haul
provision. Immediately upon the grant
ing of such a petition the rail lines lead
ing from Peoria to Buffalo would appear
before your Commission by petition claim
ing, justly or otherwise, that in order to
meet this competition they too must charge
a greater rate from intermediate points.
On the same ground the association say,
Rock Island, Hannibal, East st. Louis and
all intermediate commercial centers would
petition for relief in competition with
Peoria, and the Pennsylvania Company
would then come in with the representa-
ton that Pittsburg stands in the same re-
duction as does Buffalo to the great pro-
ducers of the West The association,
therefore, asks that the long and short haul.
feature be not suspended in any instance
until experience under the operation of the
Act has proven that feature to be detri-
mental to the best interests of the coun-
try.
Notwithstanding the number and i'm
portance of the petitions already laid be-
fore the Commission, it has practically but
one question under consideration, which is
that relating to the long and short haul
feature of the law.